Polar Bears Oh My
There are people trying to send a case to the U.S. Supreme Court that would force the government to put polar bears on the endangered species list.
There is a site dedicated to the polar bear, and even they admit that of 19 "sub populations" of bears, there is evidence that only 5 of these groups show a decline in numbers and two of them show an increase.
Everyone admits however that over the last 50 years polar bear populations have increased, most estimates show they have at least doubled.
Polar bears are migratory, and even though conservationists have divided the population into sub groups, DNA analysis shows that the subpopulations interbreed.
Tracking bears is expensive and difficult because of the climate and polar bear behavior.
So, we have a population that has doubled in size, an animal that is difficult to track, and minimal evidence that the number of bears is declining (and even that would at worse reduce numbers back to 1970's numbers)
Yep, sounds like they need to be listed as endangered to me.
Not.
There is a site dedicated to the polar bear, and even they admit that of 19 "sub populations" of bears, there is evidence that only 5 of these groups show a decline in numbers and two of them show an increase.
Everyone admits however that over the last 50 years polar bear populations have increased, most estimates show they have at least doubled.
Polar bears are migratory, and even though conservationists have divided the population into sub groups, DNA analysis shows that the subpopulations interbreed.
Tracking bears is expensive and difficult because of the climate and polar bear behavior.
So, we have a population that has doubled in size, an animal that is difficult to track, and minimal evidence that the number of bears is declining (and even that would at worse reduce numbers back to 1970's numbers)
Yep, sounds like they need to be listed as endangered to me.
Not.
posted by Gahrie | 6:22 AM
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